For the first time, the court approves promotion quotas

The state troopers of Alabama have turned up at several points in the history of the civil rights movement, usually on the opposing side. In 1963 Governor George Wallace called them out to block school integration in Tuskegee. Two years later they were pummeling black demonstrators on the Selma-to-Montgomery freedom march. So it was less than surprising that when the time came to integrate themselves, they dragged their feet. The force totally excluded blacks as troopers until ordered to hire them in 1972 by a federal court. Then it dawdled in the face of subsequent court orders to promote blacks to...